How Much Time Before Leads Go Cold?

[William Becker]

Lead Response Management (http://www.leadresponsemanagement.org/overview) conducted a study to determine the answers to the following question:

How Much Time Do You Have Before Web-Generated Leads Go Cold?

InsideSales.com (http://www.insidesales.com/) and FranklinCovey (http://www.franklincovey.com/) designed a case study to determine the optimal time to call back individuals who abandon an eCommerce transaction in the middle of a shopping cart process.

The behavioral study revealed when sales representatives had success around calling web-generated leads. To find these facts, they looked at leads that were captured through a web form, and attempted or called at least one time. Summarized below are some of the more interesting findings related to speed and timing when responding to web-generated leads:



Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to call in order to contact (by 49.7% over the worst day) and qualify (by 24.9% over the worst day) leads. Thursday is the best day to contact a lead in order to qualify that lead (by 19.1% better than the worst day).
Between 4 to 6pm is the best time to call to make contact with a lead (by 114% over the worst time block). 8-9am and 4-5pm are the best times to call to qualify a lead (by 164% better 1-2pm, the worst time of the day). 4-5pm is the best time to contact a lead to qualify over 11-12am by 109%).
The odds of calling to contact a lead decrease by over 10 times in the 1st hour. The odds of calling to qualify a lead decrease by over 6 times in the 1st hour. After 20 hours every additional dial your salespeople make actually hurts your ability to make contact to qualify a lead.
The odds of contacting a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 100 times. The odds of qualifying a lead if called in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes drop 21 times.


See LEAD RESPONSE MANAGEMENT STUDY (http://www.leadresponsemanagement.org/mit_study) and a related Dealer Internet Ups Post (http://www.dealerinternetups.com/entry.php?19-Odds-of-Contacting-a-Lead-Decrease-More-Than-10-Times-in-the-First-Hour)

[Chris]

I looked at the Lead Response Management study and see that this was conducted for eCommerce sites that acutally sell over the Internet. Also, they cite statistics for people who started to buy, but abandoned the order form before buying. This is sure different than my dealership because our goal is to set an appointment, not create a sales transaction for a vehicle.

How much of this stuff do you think applies to Internet Sales Managers in a dealership?

[William Becker]

How much of this stuff do you think applies to Internet Sales Managers in a dealership?

We've all contacted Internet leads before only to hear, "Gee, we already bought a vehicle. Someone from a different dealership called us, we went for a test drive and drove it home that day. Thanks for calling though."

InsideSales (http://www.insidesales.com/) (which, by way of full disclosure sells call center technology) did a case study at Jim Click Automotive (http://www.jimclick.com/index.htm?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&channel=s&hl=en&source=hp&q=jim+click+Automotive&btnG=Google+Search) titled 3 Critical Opportunities Automobile Dealers Can’t Afford to Miss in a Down Economy (http://www.leadresponsemanagement.org/jimclick_study).

Recommendations were based on many things including the previously cited research that showed:




People do their homework before they contact a dealer.
They research multiple dealers.
They want an immediate response to inquiries.
They lose interest quickly if not responded to.
They want their questions answered.
They don’t want to take much time at the dealership.


The Jim Click Integrated Sales Center handling all phone and Web leads increased overall sales by 102.8% during a one year period by investing in dialer, lead management, and lead response capabilities by Inside Sales and by identifying three critical opportunities to improve sales performance:



Critical Opportunity #1: A number of Salespeople may be talking to customers and qualifying them prior to capturing vital contact info and getting them to come in to the dealership.

Critical Opportunity #2: Not answering inbound calls and responding to Web leads immediately (as in 5 minutes.)

Critical Opportunity #3: Not proactively reaching out to leads, prospects, and past customers effectively, efficiently, and with a high volume of contacts.


I think we can all relate to these opportunities and while the findings might well be slanted due to a vested interest in promoting their services, I trust this answers your question.